Everlastings: Hailey
by vacant error
Summary: In a world where Gifteds are being hunted, nine teenagers must fight for their lives to save themselves and those around them.
1. Prologue

"Oh sure, make fun of the black kid!"

We all sighed. I stood up with my emptied breakfast plate in my hand, "David, you're not black." I put the dish in the almost-filled dishwasher. David was Hispanic, with dark, short hair and dark eyes to match.

Justin, who had originally been making fun of him, leaned back in his chair, sipping his Coke, shrugged and took another sip of his soda. And then he ran a hand through his disgustingly poufy mullet thing. His brown eyes traced the room, and we all gave a sort of glare at him as his eyes' stare landed on each one of us.

Ben walked in from outside, the dogs running in the room before him. Grayson, Cassie's dog, made sure to sniff each of us before scattering out of the room. "Hey, fatty," Ben called to Justin, "we've broken enough chairs, now heel." Ben shook the raindrops out of his shoulder-length, black wavy hair. His own dark eyes were glaring at Justin as he put the chair down with a thud.

"Eh." Justin replied. He chugged down the rest of his Coke, chucked it at the recycling bin, and missed.

David, who laughs at practically everything, started cracking up loudly and obnoxiously.

"Shut up, white boy!" Justin shouted. We sighed, again, as he often contradicted himself.

I started walking back to my seat, "You're an idiot, Justin. First of all, _you're _white. Second, David _isn't_. Get it right.

Me, with my piece-of-crap, medium length, curly some days, wavy others, dark chocolate hair. Yes, dark chocolate. Justin has told me more than once that my hair looks appetizing, creepy I know. That and my hazel "cookie" eyes. But really, what the hell?

"David, your laugh is so _loud_, and I think Justin woke Destinee up," came a voice from the stairs.

And hey, look, it was fresh-out-of-bed Cassie, her wavy and equally dark hair all over the place around her head. She was rubbing her coffee-colored eyes, and mashing her lips together as they broke through the overnight layer of hardened saliva. "What's for breakfast?" she asked.

I shrugged and Jon answered from his place at the far end of the table, closest to the stairs, "I dun no, Jake's attempt at eggs Benedict."

From the game room came a "Hey, shut up!" and we recognized Jake's voice.

Jon was kind of like the geek of the group. Acne, dirty blonde hair that covered his forehead and ears, and his nerdy glasses that hovered over his blue eyes. Jake, however, considered himself to be the tough guy. Beach-blonde hair and eyes that changed from hazel to blue over the change of the seasons. He was always wearing t-shirts, even in the winter.

Cassie looked at Jon with a curious expression on her face, "Jake knows how to make eggs Benedict?"

I answered this time, before Jon could, "I told him like, five minutes before he decided to make it. Which is why it's only an _attempt_."

And then we heard a door slam, and Cassie and I exchanged a look of amusement. The boys groaned, they knew what was coming.

"Ooooh, you guys are gonna get bitched at!" Cassie said sleepily, grinning ear to ear. Jon put his head on the table.

Destinee, our almost-platinum blonde sexy beast, came stomping down the oak stairs, her straightened and unwashed hair bouncing with each step, her azure eyes narrowed. It was obvious she woke up only moments ago.

"Friggin' fat bastard! I'm trying to fucking sleep! Unlike _you_, I was up all night trying to see if today was safe to go and whatever. Be public. As in, I was making sure _your_ ass was gonna be okay!" she screamed. Destinee just loved screaming and swearing. And when she combined them it usually wasn't good.

Before Justin could answer, or shout back, rather, another voice chimed in from the game room, "Ahh, Des, quit yer bitchin' and go back to bed."

Des glared at the direction of the game room, as if she could penetrate the walls and stab the voice's owner. "Shut the hell up, Adam. No one asked for your suck-ass opinion."

Adam just laughed his funny little laugh like Dessy wasn't tempted to force me to kill him. Adam, with his gelled-down, regular chocolate colored and straight hair, and his hazel eyes.

Yeah, this was pretty much my family.

And yes, they were God-awful annoying sometimes, but they were still my best friends and I wouldn't be the same without them.

Alright, so you're probably wondering why nine thirteen and fourteen-year-olds, (plus Jon, the oldie's fifteen,) were doing all alone in one huge house.

For one, we stole the house. Literally. But I can't tell you how without telling you why we're hear in the first place.

Well to say the least, we're Gifted. As in, each one of us possesses a special power. So yeah, we're pretty much kick-ass.

I'll do this in ABC order: Adam is the time-freezer of the party, which is only sort of helpful if there was a one-man job that needed to be done. Ben's got the super strength, which _definitely_ comes in handy. Cassie was telekinetic, which is just a fancy word for saying she can move stuff with her mind. David can control electricity, which is why we don't have a bill. He, Jake and Adam a way through researching in the library to permanently wire out house with unlimited electricity, as long as David was alive. Destinee is psychic, so she can see into the future. Although Des has had her power the second-longest, (after Ben,) her power is the least developed. She has to concentrate really, really hard to see anything. She does, however, get very strong sudden visions when the situation is intense enough to trigger one. She is extremely helpful, and has saved us many times. And then there's me, Hailey, who can manipulate people's minds. Brain control. With an extreme amount of energy, I could probably kill someone, although I never have. Being manipulative is quite fun actually, I could wipe someone's entire memory if I felt like it. Anyway, Jake was the water guy, the hydrokinetic. He can move and control water with his mind, and he usually practices this by flushing the toilet. Like, without pressing the handle thing. Yeah, so he could pretty much create a tsunami if got bored enough and decided he'd destroy some towns. He's the reason we don't have a water bill. Jon's the creepy mind reader, who would stare at our foreheads and know what we're thinking. He had to concentrate on our foreheads only though, so we could turn around and be fine. Justin's the person who can teleport, at any second he'll pop up in front of you and then you get pissy and he gets pissy because you're getting pissy. Sometimes he popped up in the bathroom when someone was already in there. Yep, that's us.

So anyway, our house.

Well there was this billionaire who died, and he was donating his mansion to the town to set up a new museum, since the old museum was a piece of crap. We needed a house that had at least nine bedrooms, and what do you know, that one had ten. We couldn't let it go to waste on some stupid new museum.

Cassie, Ben, and Justin did the dirty work, per say. But we all tagged along, just in case.

We can combine powers to a certain extent through physical contact. Say, if I had my hand on Justin's shoulder, he could make _other_ people teleport by looking at them, instead of having everyone hold his arm, which was the normal procedure. Oops, getting off track.

So, in order to teleport the house into it's current location, smack-dab in the middle of two Appalachian mountains in New Hampshire, we needed to move it off the foundation before Justin teleported it. While Ben had one of his hands on Justin and Cassie, Cassie used his strength to lift it, and then Justin held the edge of the house and teleported all of them, (the house, him, Cassie and Ben,) to New Hampshire.

Now, there are some people who take walks and stuff and sometimes stumble upon our little hideaway. Well, Justin teleports them somewhere, and I erase their memories. Simple as that.

We know, we're weird.

But, the reason we're out here is simple.

We don't want the Government to find us.

Over the past year or so, the Government has found us useful. They capture us and brain-wash us, training us to follow them. Originally, being Gifted was illegal. At the age of fifteen, all kids had to take a test to see if they possess or will possess, a Gift. Only a few years ago did they invent this test, and now, they had one that would test to se if the mother was carrying a Gifted baby, so she could get an abortion and try for a normal child. Now the Government wants us to join their ranks or they'll kill us, and they're hunting us down one by one. One out of every three babies is born Gifted, and lately, our population has dwindled. Either the Government has taken us, or killed us.

But, there are some who are smart enough to ban up when they realize they have powers before the age of fifteen.

We develop our powers the same time our Everlasting does.

Our Everlasting is another Gifted a different gender with the same power as you exactly, the same limitations and such. Boys get it according to when their Everlasting girl gets it, which is around puberty. Fate has written in its blog already about how we're going to meet, which has to be before we die, (this was all according to legend.)

So yeah.

Our lives are a little fucked up.


	2. Revenge With A Twist

Cassie walked into the library, where I was sitting in my huge comfy chair with a book in my hands. Des was following her, hair washed and freshly straightened.

"Hey, Hailey," Cassie said, striding over to one of the bookshelves. Destinee sat in front of the fire, she wasn't one who liked to read, and started poking it around. "Where'd the boys go? I haven't seen them in like, an hour," Cassie asked.

I shrugged, "Justin was talking about poofing over to the Playboy Mansion for the day. Not that they could do anything to . . . or with them."

Dessy laughed, "Yep, sounds like them." She stood up, stretched, and asked, "Hey, wanna have some fun?"

Cassie lost interest in the bookshelf and turned to the blonde, "Dude, do you have any idea how lesbo that sounded?"

Destinee turned her head to Cassie, blinked her sapphire eyes, and turned back to me, "Anyway, I was thinking the maybe we could trash their rooms, or something. That would make them sooo mad. It'd totally get back at them for paint-balling us when we walked inside after tanning. Remember that? It was a few months ago, like, early July, and we promised we'd get them back. Please, Hay-Hay?"

I shrugged, "I don't know, their rooms are their private places. They could get really mad and take it the wrong way. Who knows, Adam might stop time and beat the crap out of us. Or Justin'll teleport us off the top of the Grand Canyon. Or Ben'll crush us. And so on."

Cassie piped in, "Yeah, but they wouldn't do that. They love us too much. Even though they won't admit it . . ." Cassie was known to frequently run around trying to get the guys to tell her they loved her back. I.e. "I love you, Ben!" "Shut up, Cassie." Yeah.

She continued, "But maybe we could do something else. Like, dye the dogs' hair pink or something!"

I looked at her, "You are not dying my dog pink. Scooter, definitely. First of all, Scooter wouldn't mind, he loves attention, and second, it would drive Justin insane." Scooter was Justin's dog, a cute little beagle that had a miniature scooter that Justin tried to train him to ride. It didn't work out so well.

"Alright then, so revenge on Muffin-Man is decided," she paced around, and Destinee slumped over to the non-fiction section of the library. Since she wasn't into books, I found this a bit odd, but shrugged anyway. Cassie followed my gaze and made a confused expression. "Um," she said, "we could hide all the soda, Ben won't like that. Oh my God, I have the perfect one for David! We should steal his iPod and put a whole bunch of like, Aqua songs on there or something. Like 'Barbie Girl' and stuff."

"Yeah!" I exclaimed. "And take all of Jake's cologne and put Britney Spears perfume instead! And Adam . . . uhh . . ." I couldn't think of anything.

"Cover his room in pink, he won't kill us," Destinee said, still facing the book-shelf.

Cassie clapped, "Hell yeah! Jon, now. We could . . . I don't know. What'll make Kakez mad?" Kakez was Jon's nickname. He got it from watching _The Outsiders_, from Johnnycakes or something. Justin went through this obsession with muffins, which is where he got his nickname.

Des pulled a book off the shelf with a triumphant, "Ah-hah!" and she paced over to us, skimming through the pages. I tried to glance at the cover, and saw something about pranks. Oh how I loved Dessy.

"Let me see . . ." she said, browsing through the table of contents. She mumbled, and all I caught was a "there" and then she flipped through the book again. "Poisoning his food is too harsh . . . So is destroying his most treasured possession," (computer,) "and we're already sabotaging Adam's room. Wait a second, Jon wasn't even paint-balling us, was he?"

I thought about it, and I could tell Cassie was too. "No I don't think he was. Oh yeah, he was trying to fix the electricity box, 'cause his computer went dead, along with everything else. I remember, 'cause then David had to go rewire the game room, our data all got lost."

Des put the book back and said, "Alright then, let's get to work. I'll dye Scooter, I've got the perfect shade of hot pink. And since there's . . . six of them then we all get two . . . but Jon's not getting revenged on. Uh. I'll just dye Scooter and then I'll help you two later, dying is the hardest part anyway, so actually I doubt I'll be able to help."

After Destinee said who she'd sabotage, we didn't pay attention to what she was saying after. Cassie spoke up, "I've got 'Barbie Girl' on iTunes, I'll go steal David's iPod then. And I'll hide the soda!"

She bound off, and Des looked at me, shrugging, "That leaves you with Jake's cologne-stealing and Adam's room pink-i-fying. Do you have any perfume?"

I gave her a look like she was crazy, "Duh!" and then I ran out, nearly tripping over the pile of engineering books Adam and David left on the floor yesterday. They were planning on building a garage so they didn't have to bring their dirt bikes in the front hall.

I ran into my room and into my huge closet. I walked over to the make-up shelf of it and grabbed a bunch of perfume bottles. I made surely they were the most girly; two being Britney Spears, one by Hilary Duff, a Celine Dion one, don't know why I have that one, and some random perfume brand that smelled like flowers. Perfect.

Just as fast as before, I bolted down the enormous hallway and to Jake's room. His stupid handle was still broken, so I had to push down really hard to get in. He really had to get around to fixing it.

His room _smelled _like cologne. I crinkled my nose and sprayed the Celine Dion stuff all over, I didn't use that one anyway, and then put it on his bureau. I took the one, two . . . five bottles of cologne he had and made sure it smelled Celine before I sprinted out, closing the door behind me. I stuffed them in the nearest closet, under a few extra towels we kept in case we got lazy and didn't do our laundry. I then stopped, having to think of what I had to do next. Adam's room, right.

This time I ran to a bigger hallway closet on the top floor, which had the party stuff in it. We never had a party, but it came with the house and we didn't have any other use for the closet so . . . yeah.

I grabbed a bunch of packages of pink streamers, rummaging around for some other things. I found a huge pink table cloth, and took that too. I was tempted to do graffiti all over his walls, but then we'd have to repaint it and just no. I also had some pink sparkles, which would take forever to go away. Oh yeah.

So I trashed Adam's room, throwing streamers all around, same with the sparkles, and replacing his comforter with the table cloth. Hershey, his chocolate lab, came in while I was doing this, and his sat on the floor staring at me. I smiled at him and put some pink sparkles on him too, and his tongue lolled out as I did. I shook my head, weird dog.

Before I shut the door, I let Hershey out, who was happily glittering with pink sparkles. I laughed, and shoved the comforter in the same closet that I stuffed Jake's cologne in. Then I went to find Des.

She was in the first placed I looked, the bathroom across the hall from her room. Scooter wagged his tail as he saw me, but Des held him still as she brushed his coat with a load of pink dye. "Almost done," she said without looking up at me.

"Hey, I think we're good once you're done. I just gotta find Cassie . . ." I turned around and headed towards the door and Cassie appeared, and we nearly screamed. Then we just started laughing.

"I thought you'd be in here," she said to Des. "Ha-ha, the soda's all in the cleaning supplies closet, the one with the huge thing of carpet cleaner stuff. They never go in that one. Just to let you know in case you wanted any. Oh and David's iPod, _priceless_. I went on his iTunes and I just like, deleted all his songs. He's gonna have to upload all his CDs again and take off 'Barbie Girl' two-hundred times." She smiled evilly.

"You copied 'Barbie Girl' two-hundred times onto David's iPod?" Des asked, still not looking up.

"Yeah-huh!" Cassie said, putting her hands on her hips. I laughed at her stupidity and she laughed with me, dropping her arms.

Des finally looked up, and Scooter licked her face. She pushed him away with a disgusted look on her face, and then faced us, wiping off her face, "_Dude_, we should like, ruin Justin's guitars! Or one of his like, gazillion at least."

Cassie and I both looked at her as if she were insane, "Uh, _no!_" I said. Cassie nodded with me. "'Cause he'll murder us! Cold-blooded murder! And besides, it's really nice and there's no need to ruin any of them. I mean really, Scooter is now pink." Scooter barked.

Des sighed, "Yeah, you're right. Oh well, we've done enough."

"I can't wait until the boys get home," we all said

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Oh, it was funny.

Adam: "What the _hell_ did you do to my room?"

Ben: "Where the fuck's all the soda?"

David: "Ahh! My iPod is infested with Barbie!"

Jake: "Okay, who stole my cologne?"

Justin: "Scooter! _Nooooo!_"

But unfortunately, we caved and gave them their stuff back. Destinee didn't wash the dye off; Justin didn't want her to anyway. He scrubbed him and scrubbed him until there wasn't a single pink blotch on his coat. Adam threw all the pink crap at me and tried to brush the sparkles off of Hershey. He didn't bother with the pink glittery furniture though. David uploaded all of his CDs again, as planned, and it took over an hour. Jake didn't have to do much, but he walked in my room and shoved the perfume bottles in my face. "My room smells disgusting," he said.

"I know." I agreed, smiling.

He left. Cassie gave Ben the soda, which he happily took.

Now we were finally equal, again. We have little wars against each other.

Des, Cassie and I were feeling good after our revenge, so we made chicken parmesan for dinner. We all sat down in the dining room, laughing like we were perfectly normal. Justin dared me to make Adam pick David's nose, and it was hilarious. David wouldn't let him, and I can't control two people at once very well. So the whole time Adam was like, "Hailey, knock it off!" and David was like, "Adam, whoa man! Stop!"

Eventually I stopped, and we were all happy with it anyway, and I'm pretty sure Adam hit me during one of his time-freezing things, because all at once my face was stinging. I just laughed it off, and Adam got happy again anyway.

We all got quiet again, and Cassie decided to strike up a conversation, "You guys have a good time at the Playboy Mansion, huh?"

They all started laughing again, and we sort of laughed with them, only laughing because _they _were laughing. Justin finally talked, "Aw, man, it was awesome. This dude who sort of walked around and didn't really do anything saw us, and he called the security. So we decided to get them annoyed, so Adam went all time-freezing on us and he pulled his pants down and kicked him in the balls about ten times, then unfroze time and I teleported us to the bathroom I saw on the way to the hall we were in, and there was this hot blonde in the middle of taking a crap. Dude, she started _screaming_, and we were like, 'Oh, ew, man! Ew!' So then I just poofed us over to some bar, where Adam stole some guys' IDs and we bought a few drinks with their money, too. Best day ever, man, best day ever." Then he paused, "Besides the fact you guys dyed my dog's hair pink."

And then they went down the whole list of what we did to them just because they bombarded us with paintballs. Um, ow?

But they stopped talking and we just went off into random conversations with each other. Then, really loudly to get everyone's attention, David was like, "Hey, remember how bad we used to be in school? We'd get the teachers real pissed at us and we'd all get in a wicked lot of trouble. Hailey went off punching Neil in the face, me and Matt always got in trouble, Jon never shut up, Adam always swore, Justin and Ben were like, abusive, and Jake was just randomly in trouble. We were awful. And now look at us. Sorry Des, Cassie, I don't know how you guys were in school. I bet Cassie was pretty quiet though, Des was the one in trouble."

Destinee burst out laughing and nodded, not being able to talk. When she could, she replied, "Yep, pretty much." And Cassie agreed too, nodding her head as Des laughed.

We were still all talking about when me and the boys went to school together with all those other kids who eventually left, and then we ran away before we hit high school, when we heard a thudding noise coming from the living room wall.


	3. Damnit

The GDA building was just across from us, its looming figure threatening anything and everything. I gritted my teeth as I started up at the great big block letters that read GIFTED DISPOSAL AGENCY. We had searched the entirety of D.C. looking for any other building that had any reference to Gifteds, but the GDA was the only one.

Jon crossed his arms, "How are we going to save Des and Adam?"

I blinked, not sure how to answer Kakez. I looked around, and noticed people were staring at us staring at the GDA, which seemed to be staring at us. Justin huffed and crossed his arms too. "I don't see how we're going to do this, Hailz, sorry to be a pessimist."

"Justin, honestly, I don't either," I said softly.

David wasn't the brightest bulb in the box. He was funny, he was happy, he was just fun to be around, but he wasn't intelligent. However, there are rare moments in one's life where the unintelligent come up with ideas in the most pressured situations that people who had been coming up with ideas their entire life can't.

David had one of those moments.

"Guys, guys, listen, I've think I know how to get Destinee and Adam out, but it's really, really risky," he said, turning to face us. We looked at him, and he continued, "We could get caught, fine them, and then escape. Maybe even destroying some stuff on the way. Machines and the entire building if we get all the Gifteds out."

We stared at him, and Ben spoke, "David, how did you get Ds in school?"

He shrugged, "So, how are we going to do this?"

Well, there was a good question. We could run in there and cause problems, acting like we were insane so they took us in. We could cause public disturbance, be arrested and tested, and then sent in to the GDA.

I got it, "We go home." Everyone looked at me, confusion etched across their faces. "Our families will report us, and then we'll get taken inside. It's safer than breaking in. Or getting arrested."

Everyone looked back at the building and Jake said, "Alright, I'm in."

"I second the motion," Ben replied.

We all agreed, and once again, with a bunch of complains about how he was doing all the work, Justin held his arm out.

That edge-gripping feeling returned, making the blood rush through our veins in a adrenaline-like fashion, surging our bodies with heat and oxygen. We couldn't breathe in the one altered-reality second, and our lungs were filled with nothing, there was no air where teleportation took place. There was nothing, nothing except ear-splitting energy. The nothing ate at us, and when solid ground was under our feet again, we felt un-whole, as if we weren't finished teleporting.

It was funny, not in the ha-ha way, but in the weird way, how we all took in a deep breath, and exhaled almost in rhythm, too.

We looked around, seeing what we thought we wouldn't see again.

Our school.

"Sorry," Justin said, "I didn't know where else to go."

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We had decided to go to Adam's house. If we went to our own houses, our parents might welcome us back with open arms and hide us from the public. If we showed up at a mother's doorstep without her son, we would look like potential murders trying to tell her some sappy story about how he was kidnapped and killed there. We just hoped our assumptions were right and she'd call the cops.

So we knocked.

And it was Mrs. Belanger who opened the door, and for a second, as she searched us, she looked relieved, but soon saw that none of us was Adam. A frown, heavy with grief and fury, crossed her worn features. "Where's Adam?" she choked.

None of us could look at her, but we needed to provoke her, get her to call . . .

"He's gone," was Justin's answer.

Mrs. Belanger stood in the doorway for a moment later, then she staggered back, gripping the edge, and looked as if she was going to puke. She looked back up, glaring, "Why are you here, telling me something I already knew? You are abominations, and you don't deserve freedom. Look what's happened to my son."

She slammed the door, and we all walked away, not feeling triumphant like we should've, (we saw her run for a phone in the window,) but we felt guilty. We walked along the road, seven teenagers just walking along the road, that was normal looking enough.

Soon, we heard the sirens.

About half a dozen police officers pulled over beside them, and they got out, triangle device with one of them. That weird, empty sensation filled me again, and with the light-headed feeling I swayed back and forth, and one of them came over and hand cuffed me, shoving me in the cruiser.

We were taken to the police station, and there we were questioned.

"Are you Gifteds?"

"No," was each of our reply. A normal, caught Gifted wouldn't have just come out and said they were. We were required to take the test anyway.

The test wasn't really all it was cracked up to be. It was just blood work. But our blood was like, a different shade of color or something, so they could tell right away.

All our tests came back positive.

We were held in a jail cell until some truck pulled up, the triangular device humming in front of us. The humming causes our brain waves to get all funky, so we couldn't control our powers.

One by one, the police officer took us and shoved us into the back of the truck, the triangular device stayed; the drivers of the truck had their own. None of us had talked since we were questioned.

Jon was the last one in, and they shut and sealed the doors from the outside. The benches we had to sit on were hard and metal and low, so I just sat on the floor, squished between Cassie and Jake. We kept quiet; we couldn't let the drivers know we were on a sort of mission.

The ride was long, really long. We heard the drivers say we were in New Jersey, which was about a two-hour drive from where we were in Rhode Island. We were allowed to stretch, with an officer, a New Jersey officer this time, following us around. Then we were allowed to go to the bathroom, no food or water though. There were certain meals we weren't allowed to eat, apparently. We were only allowed to drink alkaline water, and Ben sighed at this. He hated water, because he's addicted to soda and doesn't understand the water's power.

We went on another really long ride, about the same length as the first one, and we just sat, waiting for time to pass by. It didn't seem like four hours, in total, really. It felt like maybe an hour. I was so caught up with possible ways to escape that I didn't realize the sign that said, "Welcome to Washington D.C." I didn't notice it through the tiny little windows on each one of the truck's doors.

Those doors opened and more police officers stood in front of us, and without handcuffing us, they brought us out.

The GDA building was looming ahead, again.

We were lead inside, and the truck driver and the receptionist at the front desk talked a little, the driver signed something, and then we were lined up in alphabetical order, according to last name, and we also, had to sign papers.

We basically had to print our name, name our power, explain it, and then sign the paper at the bottom. The receptionist had trouble reading Justin's handwriting, and he had to write it over, surprisingly not complaining.

We were lead down a flight of stairs and the officers stopped at a door, where he handed the paperwork to a blonde who was guarding the entrance door. She then opened the door, and she took out a little device that she shown in Jon's eye. He gaped at her, but the officer led him in the room. It was too dark to see inside, but the policeman seemed to know where he was going.

It was Cassie's turn, and she had the same reaction. She tried to say something, but she looked to be trying to figure out which words to say, and the police man led her away. She tried to resist, but it didn't work.

I was lead up to have my eye scanned, and when the blonde took the device away from my eye, I saw why Jon was gaping.

It was Destinee.


	4. Oh Surprises, Surprises

The GDA building was just across from us, its looming figure threatening anything and everything. I gritted my teeth as I started up at the great big block letters that read GIFTED DISPOSAL AGENCY. We had searched the entirety of D.C. looking for any other building that had any reference to Gifteds, but the GDA was the only one.

Jon crossed his arms, "How are we going to save Des and Adam?"

I blinked, not sure how to answer Kakez. I looked around, and noticed people were staring at us staring at the GDA, which seemed to be staring at us. Justin huffed and crossed his arms too. "I don't see how we're going to do this, Hailz, sorry to be a pessimist."

"Justin, honestly, I don't either," I said softly.

David wasn't the brightest bulb in the box. He was funny, he was happy, he was just fun to be around, but he wasn't intelligent. However, there are rare moments in one's life where the unintelligent come up with ideas in the most pressured situations that people who had been coming up with ideas their entire life can't.

David had one of those moments.

"Guys, guys, listen, I've think I know how to get Destinee and Adam out, but it's really, really risky," he said, turning to face us. We looked at him, and he continued, "We could get caught, fine them, and then escape. Maybe even destroying some stuff on the way. Machines and the entire building if we get all the Gifteds out."

We stared at him, and Ben spoke, "David, how did you get Ds in school?"

He shrugged, "So, how are we going to do this?"

Well, there was a good question. We could run in there and cause problems, acting like we were insane so they took us in. We could cause public disturbance, be arrested and tested, and then sent in to the GDA.

I got it, "We go home." Everyone looked at me, confusion etched across their faces. "Our families will report us, and then we'll get taken inside. It's safer than breaking in. Or getting arrested."

Everyone looked back at the building and Jake said, "Alright, I'm in."

"I second the motion," Ben replied.

We all agreed, and once again, with a bunch of complains about how he was doing all the work, Justin held his arm out.

That edge-gripping feeling returned, making the blood rush through our veins in a adrenaline-like fashion, surging our bodies with heat and oxygen. We couldn't breathe in the one altered-reality second, and our lungs were filled with nothing, there was no air where teleportation took place. There was nothing, nothing except ear-splitting energy. The nothing ate at us, and when solid ground was under our feet again, we felt un-whole, as if we weren't finished teleporting.

It was funny, not in the ha-ha way, but in the weird way, how we all took in a deep breath, and exhaled almost in rhythm, too.

We looked around, seeing what we thought we wouldn't see again.

Our school.

"Sorry," Justin said, "I didn't know where else to go."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We had decided to go to Adam's house. If we went to our own houses, our parents might welcome us back with open arms and hide us from the public. If we showed up at a mother's doorstep without her son, we would look like potential murders trying to tell her some sappy story about how he was kidnapped and killed there. We just hoped our assumptions were right and she'd call the cops.

So we knocked.

And it was Mrs. Belanger who opened the door, and for a second, as she searched us, she looked relieved, but soon saw that none of us was Adam. A frown, heavy with grief and fury, crossed her worn features. "Where's Adam?" she choked.

None of us could look at her, but we needed to provoke her, get her to call . . .

"He's gone," was Justin's answer.

Mrs. Belanger stood in the doorway for a moment later, then she staggered back, gripping the edge, and looked as if she was going to puke. She looked back up, glaring, "Why are you here, telling me something I already knew? You are abominations, and you don't deserve freedom. Look what's happened to my son."

She slammed the door, and we all walked away, not feeling triumphant like we should've, (we saw her run for a phone in the window,) but we felt guilty. We walked along the road, seven teenagers just walking along the road, that was normal looking enough.

Soon, we heard the sirens.

About half a dozen police officers pulled over beside them, and they got out, triangle device with one of them. That weird, empty sensation filled me again, and with the light-headed feeling I swayed back and forth, and one of them came over and hand cuffed me, shoving me in the cruiser.

We were taken to the police station, and there we were questioned.

"Are you Gifteds?"

"No," was each of our reply. A normal, caught Gifted wouldn't have just come out and said they were. We were required to take the test anyway.

The test wasn't really all it was cracked up to be. It was just blood work. But our blood was like, a different shade of color or something, so they could tell right away.

All our tests came back positive.

We were held in a jail cell until some truck pulled up, the triangular device humming in front of us. The humming causes our brain waves to get all funky, so we couldn't control our powers.

One by one, the police officer took us and shoved us into the back of the truck, the triangular device stayed; the drivers of the truck had their own. None of us had talked since we were questioned.

Jon was the last one in, and they shut and sealed the doors from the outside. The benches we had to sit on were hard and metal and low, so I just sat on the floor, squished between Cassie and Jake. We kept quiet; we couldn't let the drivers know we were on a sort of mission.

The ride was long, really long. We heard the drivers say we were in New Jersey, which was about a two-hour drive from where we were in Rhode Island. We were allowed to stretch, with an officer, a New Jersey officer this time, following us around. Then we were allowed to go to the bathroom, no food or water though. There were certain meals we weren't allowed to eat, apparently. We were only allowed to drink alkaline water, and Ben sighed at this. He hated water, because he's addicted to soda and doesn't understand the water's power.

We went on another really long ride, about the same length as the first one, and we just sat, waiting for time to pass by. It didn't seem like four hours, in total, really. It felt like maybe an hour. I was so caught up with possible ways to escape that I didn't realize the sign that said, "Welcome to Washington D.C." I didn't notice it through the tiny little windows on each one of the truck's doors.

Those doors opened and more police officers stood in front of us, and without handcuffing us, they brought us out.

The GDA building was looming ahead, again.

We were lead inside, and the truck driver and the receptionist at the front desk talked a little, the driver signed something, and then we were lined up in alphabetical order, according to last name, and we also, had to sign papers.

We basically had to print our name, name our power, explain it, and then sign the paper at the bottom. The receptionist had trouble reading Justin's handwriting, and he had to write it over, surprisingly not complaining.

We were lead down a flight of stairs and the officers stopped at a door, where he handed the paperwork to a blonde who was guarding the entrance door. She then opened the door, and she took out a little device that she shown in Jon's eye. He gaped at her, but the officer led him in the room. It was too dark to see inside, but the policeman seemed to know where he was going.

It was Cassie's turn, and she had the same reaction. She tried to say something, but she looked to be trying to figure out which words to say, and the police man led her away. She tried to resist, but it didn't work.

I was lead up to have my eye scanned, and when the blonde took the device away from my eye, I saw why Jon was gaping.

It was Destinee.


	5. Thanks For the Warm Welcome

"Des," I croaked, barely moving. The police officer nudged me to move. I didn't.

"Please move along, miss," Destinee said in her low voice, but it had no feeling, her gorgeous blue eyes were blank.

"Destinee . . ." I said softly as I was lead away. Jake, who was behind me, tried to talk to her too, only she replied with the same demand she gave me.

I was put into a cell, again. Only this time I was alone. Cassie was on one side of me, and Jake on the other. An enormous triangular device stood in the center of the half-circle room. There was only one other prisoner besides us. She was rocking back and forth, and full plates of some moldy-looking mush lay at the edge of the cell.

I couldn't believe it. My best friend was brain-washed, and I don't know if she'll ever be the same. I suddenly missed her and Justin's arguments, as annoying as they were, they were what made Destinee who she was, a tough-exterior, soft-interior girl, like a pineapple. And now, she was a friggin' robot.

"Hey, girl," David called, trying to get the other girl's attention. She had dark blonde, curly hair and hazel eyes they were filled with misery. I felt bad for her, and hoped that wouldn't happen to us.

"Y-yes?" she stuttered.

"Why are you here?" David asked.

The girl didn't look away, despite the personal statements the question demanded, "Because I refuse to work for them. My death will be any day now."

David, one of the farthest away from me, shot a look of hope in my direction, and I squeezed Cassie's hand. Yeah, she was sort of clingy. I don't blame her in this situation though.

It was several hours before they fed us. The food was white and mushy, and it reminded me of instant potatoes. It tasted dryer, though. The texture was basically the same, but the buttery, potato goodness wasn't there. It tasted like . . . flavored dirt.

It was edible, and I was hungry, so I ate it. I scraped the fork along the bottom of the empty plate, trying to get whatever remains of the instant-brick-potatoes was left. We were given water too, and it was weird, kind of sour tasting. I gulped it down anyway, and wiped my mouth when it was all gone. I looked over to the girl in the cell; she was curled up on the floor, apparently sleeping.

We couldn't see Destinee, there were no windows on the door, and the room was dark with the lack of light. My eyes got used to it, but there feeling of something lurking over in the corner didn't leave me. I curled up in the corner, pretending these thoughts weren't running through my mind.

-x-

I was fast asleep when the door opened, and light poured in. I had no idea what time it was, and I blinked my eyes in the sudden light. A guy in some gay-ass uniform walked in, with two security guards behind him. He had a list in his hand.

"Will a Mr. Jonathan Aubin raise his hand?" he asked with a strange, bloated voice. Jon raised his hand. The security guard unlocked his cell, and I mouthed, "remember the plan," before he was taken outside.

It was about fifteen minutes before the guy and the two security guards came back. "Will a Miss Cassandra Bridge raise her hand?" And Cassie raised her hand, and the guards took _her _away. She nodded at me, and then the door shut on her too.

I was next, if the were doing this in order. When the guards walked in, I almost quoted the man as he spoke, "Will Miss Hailey Gagnon raise her hand?" I raised it, and the guards unlocked my cell, and they took me out and led me to the door. I followed the down the hall and into a pure white room; white tiled floor, while brick walls, and white painted ceiling. I was seated in a white metal chair, and a painted white wood table was in front of me. The man started to talk, "Now, Hailey, we are giving you two options: Work for us, or die."

I pretended to ponder on this, and then finally said, "Um, I'd like to work with you, please." I wasn't sure how I was going to escape the brain-washing part, but I'd figure out a way.

The man smiled, "Good."

I was grabbed once again by the arms, and the led into the hall again, and into yet another room that had another heater-sized triangle thing. Cassie and Jon were standing over in the corner, standing next to each other and talking in hushed voices. They were looking forward, which was odd. The door closed shut and they turned their heads to face me, and then a smile exploded on Cassie's face. She stepped to the side.

"Adam!" I shouted, and ran over to hug him. He hugged back, saying "hi" in a very non-robotic voice. I smiled.

"Any ideas on the brain-washing thing? How are we going to escape that?" Jon asked, quietly, of course.

Adam answered, "Well I don't know. When the brought me and Des in, they interviewed all of us, there were a bunch of other kids, too, and asked if we were in control of our power. Destinee isn't, so she was put off into this other group. I've been in this room since last night." I looked around.

It was dark, but it had a light on the ceiling, and the room had a chair. Ooh, big improvement from a cell. "So, what are you saying? That--" the door opened, and Jake stepped in.

"Hey, Adam!" he called, slapping Adam on the back. "Okay, man, we have a total problem we forgot about. How are we going to escape getting our brains scrambled?"

Adam sighed, and Cassie replied, "I think we should wait for the rest of us to get in here.

So while we were waiting for Ben, David, and Justin, we told Adam how we got here in the first place, right from last night when we started chasing after the Jeeps. We told him about his mom, and he let out a sarcastic laugh. "Ah, mom," was all he said.

When we were all in the room, Adam explained that the story about putting experienced and inexperienced "power-wielders," as they had been referred to. He believed that since the people who weren't in the experienced group couldn't control their powers, they were brain-washed and used for simple tasks, such as guarding doors.

"So what are we used for?" Ben asked.

Adam shrugged, "Whatever they feel like."

Ben looked at him like he was an insane person, "They better not fucking rape me."

We all laughed, even though there really wasn't anything to laugh at, true, Ben was funny, but the situation was certainly not a comedy.

So we talked and told Adam what our plan was, and he said it was good, being our only option. Then I brought up Destinee, "What about Des? How are we going to fix her brain when we find her?"

Jon looked at me, "You should be able to trigger memories of us in her brain. Pinch around in her cerebrum, that'd work."

We all stared at Jon in disbelief. Justin finally broke the silence, "Jon, man, where'd you learn a big word like cerebrum? I don't think you've ever said anything more advanced then like . . . spaghetti."

Jon shrugged, "I had some time on my hands, so I did some reading. We have a lot of books in the library, you know."

"No, really, Jon?" Cassie asked sarcastically.

He just shrugged, and we talked more about Destinee, and some other random things. It was about an hour before that guy in the suit walked in, his security guards outside the door. "Now then," he spoke loudly, as if we were an enormous crowd in like, an auditorium or something. Which we weren't. "All of you have chosen life. In that case, you will aid us in missions, depending on your skill level. Mr. Aubin, the form we had you fill out, you stated you had the ability to read minds. How strong is your ability to do so?"

Jon hesitated before answering, "Well, I have to look at someone's forehead, and their thoughts flood into mine. That's basically it."

The man pursed his lips, but nodded. "Miss Bridge, you stated you had . . ." he looked at the clipboard he was holding, "telekinetic abilities. How strong are these skills?"

Unlike Jon, Cassie answered right away, "Strong. My only limits are things that exceed six tons." Her voice was steady and calm.

He nodded again, glanced another look at the clipboard, "Miss Gagnon, you said you are manipulative. What do you mean by that?"

I took a deep breath, "I can control other people's bodies. And I'm very practiced at it."

He looked at Jake, "Water control. Is that correct, Mr. Hagerty?" When Jake nodded, the man continued, "Well then, are you in control and skilled at this power?"

Jake just nodded again. "Very good," said the man, looking at the clipboard. "Mr. . . . Lavelle. Strength is your power, how are you with it?"

Ben shrugged, "I'm good at it. I'm very in control of it." It was weird, hearing them talk like this. Their words were usually improper and they tended not to use the correct words, and the formal way in which they were speaking seemed alien.

"Very good," the man repeated. "And Mr. Maineville, how about you and your um . . . electricity?"

David shrugged, and said, "I'm in control of it."

Before the man could ask him, Justin spoke up, "And I'm awesome at tele-porting." The man blinked and nodded.

"Well then, congratulations. You all will be working on the tracking squad. You will follow the guards when you go outside, they'll take you to the training section of building. Training will begin immediately. You will live here, and you each will be partnered up with another tracker. Good luck."

The man strode out of the room, and then the security guards walked in after he passed the doorframe. A deep "Come with us," came from one of them, and they walked out again. We followed them, not really sure if what the man said was true. What was training? A code name for the brain-washing?

But it wasn't. We walked in a large room, with several random-looking objects made out of every kind of material. Jon was called up by a loud speaker, almost the instant the door closed behind us. Jon stepped forward, and another man came out of a door on the far side of the room. He strode over to Jon, and the loudspeaker instructed Jon to say aloud the thoughts the man was speaking. Jon repeated them, simple things like "My name is Robert." "I am thirty-six years old." That kind of stuff.

Adam, who apparently hadn't been tested yet, was next. He was told to stop time and take the object the man was holding away from him, and be standing three feet behind him when he stopped . . . stopping time.

Cassie's test was simple; she had to move around a few things without touching them. Mine was a little more complicated; I had to make the man do several things, from lifting his arm to making him jog the entire perimeter of the room.

Jake had to move some water in a bowl, Ben had to lift one of the larger objects with one hand and punch a hole through a four-inch wooden board, David had to turn a light on without flicking the switch, and Justin had to teleport all over the room.

We all seemed to pass that test, and now we were going to officially train, apparently. More men came out of the back door, and we were required to do a series of karate moves on them. They seemed satisfied, but they also said we would work on that during training. Wait, wasn't this training?

Treadmills were brought out, and we had to run as fast and as far as we could on them. We each ran around two hours, being Gifted had its athletic advantages. They weren't impressed, though we didn't expect them to be.

We were lead to our rooms; they told us training would begin tomorrow with our partner.

Our rooms were barely closets. Or at least, the closets in our house. The two beds were crammed in there, practically pushed together. If I stood inbetween them, there was barely half an inch separating me from each side of the beds. A girl who looked about my age, maybe older, was sitting on one of the beds. There was one small bureau that was to the side of the door, and a small table with a bunch of papers on the other side. The girl looked up, gray eyes meeting mine. Her hair was a bright orange and bushy, but it was tied to the back of her head. "Hello," she said in a quiet voice. It didn't sound robotic at all. She hesitated and spoke again, "My name's Amber. What's yours?"

"Hailey," I said. I sat down on the other bed. "Are you a tracker?"

Amber nodded, "Yeah. I was brought in two days ago. They said they would begin training when I got a partner."

"Huh, well, I'm your partner, so I guess you'll begin training," I said, faking a smile. "If you don't mind telling me, what's your power?"

She shrugged, "Isn't it obvious, with my hair and all? Fire."

I actually smiled this time, "Aw, dude, that's awesome. And yeah, I was actually thinking yours had something to do with fire because of your hair. Mind-control's mine. Not too original. But neither is fire, no offense. Do you have any friends here?"

She nodded, "Yeah, my best friend Sarah. They said we couldn't be partnered with each other. I think she's in the next room over, but we're not allowed to leave our room. We can use our powers in here though; they trust us to a certain extent when we decide to work for them."

"That's good, I guess. So what do trackers do?" I asked.

Amber shrugged, "They explained it to me and Sarah. They said that we study a band, or a loner, it depends, of Gifteds. We follow them around, figure out their powers and stuff. If and when we find they're permanent location, we're supposed to contact headquarters and let them know that we found some."

I nodded, "Oh okay." I looked at the walls and the ceilings, both and off-white with no paintings or anything. I missed the color of our house. "Hey," I whispered, "Are there security cameras in here?"

Amber shook her head, and an orange curl fell in front of her face, "Nope. But all outside some of the Government's most trusted Gifteds guard the building. I think we're underground anyway, but still." She shrugged. "What about you, do you have any friends here?"

I smiled, "Only the best."


	6. Mission Time

"OW," I muttered as I was kicked the arm. I ducked as my trainer swung his leg around in a round-house kick. I tripped him and he fell, trying to kick me on the way down. I backed away, and I was tempted to hold him there, but Amber and I were told we couldn't use our powers, or we'd be punished. Not wanting to find out what the punishment was, we decided not to use our powers.

We were told that three weeks ago.

"You've improved," he said in his robotic voice that I hated.

I just nodded, and he stood up. Over on the other side of the room, which had mats covering the floor, it reminded me of a gym, Amber had just kicked the dude she was fighting to the ground.

"Congratulations, Amber and Hailey, you have completed your training," said the loudspeaker. Amber and I believed it was a robot.

The man, Gregory, I from the first day here walked through the door, clapping his hands. "Congrats, girls, you've passed your training. You've both come very far in three weeks. I am honored to give you your uniforms and your very first mission." He handed us the files he was handing, and Amber signaled for me to take it. Another thing we had learned in training: signals.

I took it, and read it over quickly. An Austin . . . a Katie . . . and some Bill guy were our targets. Last location spotted was Denver, Colorado at some grocery market. A few pictures of the three were there, too. Austin had short, dark hair with a light shade of green eyes. Katie was kind of like Destinee, with blonde hair and blue eyes, although her hair was soft looking and longer, and naturally straight. Bill had long, messy hair like Ben, only his was a light brown. His eyes were blue, too. I glanced at there last names. Bill and Katie were brother and sister. That was, well, rare.

"A teleporter will take you to Denver, and there you will find these three and find their settlement. This sighting was only two days ago, and their believed powers are here as well," Gregory said. He looked like a Greg, graying blonde hair and harsh, dark eyes.

Amber and I nodded, grinning. We knew what we had to do.

Although our uniforms were laced with about fifteen tracking devices to make sure we would stay on course, we had a plan to escape. Not while on the mission, but from the inside. I had only seen one of my friends once, and that was David, being led to the men's bathroom while my own guard guided me to the other bathroom. We had exchanged a glance, but didn't dare speak.

Another guy walked out of the door, wearing the same uniform as us, only more manly. Ours was a tight, black, shiny leather body suit. It indicated that we were special agents for the GDA.

Our first few days of training, we practiced verbal and facial effects. We were supposed to speak sternly and commanding, so we sounded like we were important and that we knew what we were doing. Our faces were supposed to be flat or harsh, depend-ing on the situation. The following week we working on device control, sort of like James Bond and stuff. We had grappling works, and communicating devices, and lasers, and even hacking cards, although we were told those were more than likely not used.

And guns.

Being Gifteds ourselves, we couldn't use the triangle thing, which was actually called a Deoxy-Tripenetrater, (everyone just calls it the DT for short,) or it would cancel our own powers. So we had our Gifts, and our guns.

The guy's suit was loose, though, still black, but not leather. It was a softer, almost stronger-looking material. Greg spoke again, "This is Carl, he'll take you to Denver." Carl looked maybe seventeen, with hair a darker shade of orange than Amber's, and eyes the same shade as Greg's dark brown orbs.

Carl nodded, looked at us, and in a second we were in Colorado, its wind ripping against our protected bodies. The suit kept us at a perfect temperature, not too hot and not too cold, no matter what the weather was. I was surprised when I got that weird, messed-up reality feeling; I had expected to have to touch his arm or something. But then I remembered Justin's limit: not being able to teleport more than one person without phys-ical contact. Yeah, that'd be pretty creepy if Justin's Everlasting was a guy.

In another second, Carl wasn't there. We stood in front of the grocery store that the three Gifteds had been spotted in. Amber and I exchanged a glance, and then walked inside.

It was pretty busy, and everyone kept staring at us. Our face was how it was supposed to be: emotionless.

We walked up to the first register, and I handed Amber a copy of all their pictures, taking ones for myself before stuffing the files back into my suit. "I'll start up here, then, and you wanna go down there?" I asked.

She just nodded and started walking to the other end of the cash registers. I worked my way to the front of the line, cutting off what the girl at the register was about to say to some mom who was shushing her bratty-looking kids. I couldn't help but wonder if they would turn out Gifted.

The lady looked at me, puzzlement across her face. Calmly, with an edge, however, I held out the pictures like playing cards, spread out so she could see them. "Have you seen any of these three?" I asked.

She shook her head, and I walked away while her eyes followed me. I went to the next register, asking the same question. That lady said no as well. I sighed and walked away. I was about to go to the next one when Amber ran up next to me, "The man at Register 12 said he saw the girl a couple days ago while he was on the night shift."

I nodded, and we both strode over to Register 12. "Sir," I said, stepping in front of the lady who was paying him. "We're from the GDA, the Gifted Disposal Agency. I understand that you have seen this girl recently?" I held up the picture of Katie.

He nodded ferociously, and the older woman who was paying changed her expression from angry to interest. Amber glanced at her, narrowing her gray eyes. "Yes, I remember seeing her. She was the one who gave me the money that disappeared!"

I bobbed my head in agreement, "Yes, she is a Gifted. A criminal who has the power of illusion. She only made an illusion of money and then stopped concentrating when she was far enough away. I understand that you called the police?"

"Yes, right after the money disappeared from my hand. I knew she was Gifted," he said.

Amber took over, "Thank you very much, sir. You've been a great help. Two more questions, however. What was she wearing, and was she with anyone?"

The man shook his head, "No she was alone. But she was dressed simply. Just a black t-shirt and jeans. Sneakers. She looked kind of dirty, too."

We thanked him again and left. Obviously, they were somewhere where water wasn't available to them; they didn't have a Jake to keep water supplied. I sighed, realizing how much I missed them.

"So, the plan," Amber said, and I realized that she wasn't talking about the mission.

"Right. Well, we get back, run into the hallway that has the rooms and open all the doors and call them out. All of them, even if we don't know who's in them. We all need to be free. Even though we weren't brain-washed, the Government still managed to get us to become almost attached to them. I can feel it, the nice meals and the rooms compared to the cells we started out in," I hissed.

Amber nodded, "But what about these three? How are we going to tell them to run away? And to where would they go?"

I opened and closed my mouth, and I kept thinking that Justin was here to take them somewhere. "I would've suggested teleportation, but there's no one to do it . . . Their powers are illusion, invisibility, and control over metal. Nothing that helps them get anywhere." I pursed my lips and looked off into the distance, wondering what to do.

Amber started talking again, "We could get them plane tickets."

I shook my head, "No, the security guards will go through files and recognize their faces from the wanted list."

"Right . . ." she thought some more. "Wait, you said invisibility, right?"

I nodded slowly, wondering what she was getting at.

"Well, if whoever has it—" I cut her off.

"The Austin dude."

"Right, well if he doesn't have a limit that only allows himself to turn invisible, then when we get teleported back, he can make them invisible and he can grab our wrists or something and they'll come back with us. Then we do the whole escape plan . . ."

I agreed, "And everyone _should_ be there, we're only trackers, so they don't send more than one team out at a time, in case we do go all M.I.A."

"Okay then, let's find these guys."

"Mountains?"

"Mountains."

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"Ack, I think that was poison ivy," Amber complained.

I shrugged, "I'm not allergic."

"Yeah, well I am!" she exclaimed.

I rolled my eyes and grabbed a bit of my suit, indicating to Amber, "The suit'll protect us." She huffed, but continued walking anyway.

I don't know how long we _were_ walking for, but all I know was that it had been awhile. My digital watch had been switched to Colorado time, and it was already seven o'clock. The dark was dark, and clouds hovered over the moon. I sighed in aggravation. We were using these big clunky flashlights, and they were really annoying to carry around. Mine kept dimming and then going really bright, which freaked me out several times. All of a sudden a dark shadow in front of me became a huge friggin' bush.

"What, exactly, are we looking for?" Amber asked.

"Uh, a house or something. It doesn't have to be big or anything. Maybe a shack. Some kind of shelter," I said.

These mountains were so different from the Appalachian ones. These were jagged and deadly-looking. Also unlike the Appalachians, they didn't have the rounded homi-ness that the Apps did. Our house was nestled on a low, flat precipice that we cleared. Or, Ben cleared. Actually, everyone really helped with their power, except Adam. He couldn't do much with it.

Sigh, Adam.

I really should stop thinking about them.

"Hey, what's that?" Amber asked. Her flashlight's beam was on some odd shaped square thing in the near distance. It looked like it could almost be a hut of some sort.

We ran to it, jumping over the undergrowth and roots from the random tree. I almost tripped like, four times. But we got to it, and it was a hut. It was rounded at the top, and it came down in a square. It looked like it could barely house one person, let alone three. I walked closer to it, as silently as possible.

The rotted door was closed, and I reached out my hand to push it open, and my hand went right through it. The whole hut disappeared in an instant. I stared at it for a second, and then turned to Amber, "Did you just see that, or was that me?"

Amber was wide-eyed, and she shook her head.

"Oh boy, could the Government get any stupider recruits?"

Amber and I turned to the direction of the voice. Three shadowed figures were standing on a flattened piece of a once jagged precipice.

I glared at the figures, "And you are?"

One jumped down, it looked like it could be Bill. "Wouldn't you like to know?" he asked in his deep, harsh voice. In an instant, a piece of metal flew over to him as if he was magnetic. Yep, definitely Bill. The others jumped down, but stayed their distance.

A creaking, metallic sound rang through my ears, making my sensitive earlobes scream. I ignored it as best as I could, twitching my eye slightly. I noticed that he had bent the piece of metal so the top was curved into a . . . point.

Focusing hard on the image of a brain, I twisted it around in my head to the basal ganglia, which was basically the part of the brain that told your body _no_. I stared hard at Bill, and in my mind I pinched a sulcus, which are those fold things you see in dia-phragms of brains. I held the pinch, and Bill stopped walking towards us. Next, I walked the image to the back of the brain, the cerebellum. While still making sure the basal ganglia was in control, I gave a pinch to the inner part of the cerebellum, and the piece of metal started to go back to its un-pointy form.

Pretty neat, eh?

"What did you just do? What are you doing? Do you have some kind of paralyz-ing device on you?" Bill huffed through clenched teeth.

I shook my hand, and Amber showed off her gymnastic skills by doing two back handsprings and finishing it off with a back flip. "See?" I strode closer to Bill, about a foot away from him, the image of a brain still in my head. "The Government smartened up and they're using us for the greater good, dear Bill. Now, before I make you stab yourself with that lovely piece of metal you have there, why don't you tell me where you live?"

He laughed, but he had trouble doing it since he couldn't move much. "Oh yeah, like I'd tell you. 'Cause if I did, then you guys would call your boss or whatever back at the GDA and they'd swoop down and capture us. We're not as stupid as you think."

Amber and I looked at each other. He was saying our exact thoughts when we lived out in the middle of nowhere. I looked back at Bill, "And what makes you think we want to be slaves of the Government?"

Bill blinked several times, and Austin and Kate, as I assumed they were, came into our view. Kate spoke, "Oh, I dun no, because you're wearing a Gov uniform and you came here to give our location to them. Something like that."

I wanted to hit her with that snobby attitude of hers. I bit her right back, "Well, don't you think you're all that? Please, you wouldn't know what a savior was if Jesus stared you right in the face. We're here to rescue you, dumbass."

Kate blinked, clearly stunned that I actually had the nerve to like, totally diss her. Austin spoke instead, "Watch it. You don't know who you're messing with."

Amber stepped in, her hand igniting on fire, the red-orange glow lighting up their faces. "Neither do you, Mr. Invisibility. We're not stupid, we know your powers. Bill controls metal, and your little girlfriend over here creates illusions." Her face was flat, still. Bravo, Amber.

I just raised an eyebrow, now that they could see me do it. They didn't speak, so I did instead, "Ugh, as in, the Government knows where you live, and if you don't come with us, then you'll be found and captured. They have a machine, a Deoxy-Tripenetrater, which can cancel out your powers while it's on. So don't think you can take them on, because you can't." I kept the blank expression, but my voice was harsh and full of meaning, not what we were taught at all.

Austin shrugged, "So if we don't go back with you, how will they know where we are if you don't tell them?"

Amber and I looked at each other, and she said, "They realize that you guys are experienced with fooling people, and they send in a more experienced and dedicated team in. Gifteds who actually want you to be captured like them."

Kate started talking again, and I huffed in aggravation. "So, like, we have to go with you, or we'll be found by someone who _doesn't_ want to help us?"

"Like, yeah, that's what I just like, said," I mimicked. Kate narrowed her blue eyes at me, and I gave her an I Don't Care look.

I let Bill go, since he looked like he was a) trustworthy, at this point, and b) struggling to say something. He took in a deep breath, as if I had been choking him, "So, how are we going back with you?"

I tilted my head towards Austin, "Can you make other people invisible?" He nodded furiously. Sheesh, kid. "Good, then here's the plan: We plant the tracker chip somewhere where we thought you guys set up as a permanent camp, and then contact the GDA. When they send their teleporter to bring us back so they can send in the squad who takes care of all the dirty work, then you make everyone invisible and grab on to our wrist, so you come with us. Got it?"

Kate had a sneer on her face. I was seriously starting to dislike her. "And how do we know we can trust you?"

I rolled my eyes, Amber's fire still allowing us to see each other in the dark. "Really, is it true that blondes are dumb? _We want out, too_. Duh."

Kate rolled her eyes as if I was the one being stupid. I ignored her, and Amber took over, "So, know any place we can pretend is your hideout?"

Bill looked like he wanted to jump up and down, and Amber and I stared at him, expecting him to pour out an answer anytime now. He kept biting his lip and bouncing on his toes. I lost all patience, "_What_, Bill?"

"Yeah, I know a place! Our place!"

I looked at him like he was an idiot, "Really, Bill?"

He nodded like Austin had earlier. I sighed in frustration. "Are you gonna tell me where this place is so I can place the chip there?" I nearly shouted.

A sheepish look crossed his features, and he scratched his light brown hair, reddish in the firelight. I exhaled, long and exaggerated. Out of all the Gifteds, why this bunch?

Bill and the rest were _still_ standing there. Amber was getting pissed now, I could see it. She was who spoke, and they were lucky, 'cause if I did, I'd probably be yelling. Reaaaally loudly. "Show us so we can go!" she exclaimed, her bright orange curls boun-cing as her head moved with the animation of her voice.

They all mumbled stuff like "right" and "oh" and "sorry". Then Austin waved his hand for us to follow, finally, and we all started hiking through the mountains again.

We walked. And walked. And walked some more.

"Are. We. Almost. _There_?" I said, obviously annoyed by the fact that they were so far away. Justin would be really useful right about now. Ugh, thinking about them again . . .

Kate crossed her arms and Austin answered, "Yeah, just about another five minutes and we'll be there." Great. Five more minutes walking through the Rocky Mountains, everyone's dream getaway vacation.

It was about five minutes later that we reached a simple cabin, in pretty good shape, supported by metal, snuggled inbetween a mountain and a random tree. Okay?

"Okay, you can plant your chip thing here. We could leave the lights on to make it seem like we're inside," Bill said.

I shook my head, "No, that'd be too obvious that it was a setup. Do you guys have fresh food in there and stuff?"

All three agreed one way or another, nodding their head or saying something like "yeah".

"Great," Amber continued, "that'll let them know that you were recently there and maybe just went scouting or something. Perfect, actually. Alrighty, where should we like, leave the tracking chip?"

I shrugged, "The tree? Random thought, but this has got to be record timing, finding you guys in a day."

They just blinked at me, not sure how to reply. Amber went to go put the tracking device in the tree, and when she did, she looked over to us. "Okay, Austin, do you have a limit to how long you can be invisible?"

"Uhh . . ." Austin thought for a second, looking off to the side. "Well I don't think over an hour. I tried once and I got really tired and my nose started to bleed. So yeah."

I stared at him for a second, and then continued, "Well, that leaves us more than enough time. We were worried it'd be like, twenty minutes or something. That might be a problem. It all depends on how long this dude, kinda like the boss of the Gifteds, talks to us. Then we break everyone else out, and leave. Yeah."

Amber nodded and spoke again, "Okay everyone, I'm turning the tracker on. Austin, a teleporter will arrive in like, point two seconds, I suggest you make everyone invisible now and grab on to Hailey." Austin nodded, and in a second he just disappeared . . . and then Kate and then Bill. I felt something grab my wrist and I gave Amber a thumbs up. She pressed something on the little black device, and it started flashing red. She jogged over to where I was, and she was about to say something when Carl popped in front of us. I nearly jumped ten feet in the air.

"Uhh, hi, Carl. Well, we found a hideout, it looks like it belongs to adolescents, and there's fresh food, leading us to believe that someone has recently been residing here," I explained.

He raised a dark eyebrow, "And how do you guess that it is adolescents living there instead of say, and adult?" I was startled by his extremely deep voice. Hey, there Carl.

I blinked at him, not knowing how to answer. What does our house look like, duh? "Clothes spread out all around the bedrooms, three beds, the clothes don't look like they'd fit an adult, or a small child. There are several messes in the kitchen, which indicates that whoever lives there don't care about their living space. However that could mean a man lives there, but that wouldn't explain the numerous girly clothing articles I saw lying around."

Wow, go me.

Impressed, Carl sort of smiled. I didn't know what to call it, it wasn't a smile, but the corners of his lips turned up. An effort? "Alright, that seems like reliable information, I'll take you back and then Greg will handle it from there. Who knows, you might get a promotion."

Yeah, like I'd be sticking around to wait for that.

As we hurtled through the next dimension, Austin's, or whoever's, grip on my wrist tightened, and the completely let go when we landed in the training area. Why here? No idea.

Greg stood in front of us, clapping his hands slowly and dramatically, and then spoke, "Well done girls. Carl wouldn't have brought you back if your information didn't support the case."

Then he glanced at his watch, "Oh, I have to run. Go on to your room, I'll talk to you later." As he turned, we looked around the gym thing. Carl had disappeared, and we were all alone.

Amber smirked, "Fate, maybe?"

I half-squeezed whoever's hand had been on my wrist, whispering, "Almost time."

Amber and I, as nonchalantly as possible, walked to the back door, leading to the dorm things. I bit my lip as I opened it, and almost screamed when I saw there was a security guard standing there. That's it, power time.

Again, I pictured the brain in my mind. This time, I pictured the thalamus, the reaction part. I pinched hard, hard, hard, and the guard collapsed. "Okay," I said to the three invisible kids. They appeared at my side, looking around in both awe and fright.

I ran to the first room, which I hoped Jon would be in. I turned the knob, but it was locked. I was about to run to the security guard when I realized something, Bill controlled metal. He could completely take the door off, it was steel.

"Bill, open this door, it's steel," I commanded. He did, and it was awesome. The metal hinges plunked off and hit the ground, and then the whole door pretty much imploded. I blinked at him, smiling a bit. "Nice," I complimented.

He muttered his thanks, and I looked in the room. And yes, there was Jon, and some other kid. The other kid looked a lot like Jon actually, only chubbier and his hair was a little lighter. "Let's go!" I yelled, and they shook the stunned look off their faces and ran out with us.

The next door revealed Adam, sitting on the floor, and his red-headed partner. They followed us too. The Cassie and apparently Sarah, since Amber hugged her tightly. I tapped her on the shoulder, reminding her this was not the time for socialization.

One by one, we unlocked the doors, and a few times I had to re-knock the security guard out, he kept becoming conscious again. Justin and the short kid he was paired up with were the last pair of in which my friends were included. We unlocked _every_ door, and each time grateful kids ran out. Justin teleported us to the room where we last saw Destinee, and there she was, standing like she was stunned. She hadn't seen us yet.

"Does anyone have x-ray vision?" I asked. Justin raised his hand, "You idiot, you do not have x-ray vision."

He shook his head, his short mullet shaking with him, "No, no, my partner Joe here does."

Joe was the short kid, and I motioned him over to where I was. He hurriedly paced over, and I asked if he could see into bodies. He nodded. "Good. Now can you look over there at that blonde girl and see if she has some sort of chip or something in her?"

He nodded again, and then looked at Dessy. His eyes moved down her body, then he turned to me, "Nothing," he said softly. I thanked him, then knocked Des out. "Sorry, Dessy." I said, dragging her over to Justin. "Hey, did you get that chip thing off?" I asked.

"Yeah-yuh. Ben took it off," he answered.

"Okay, then take her back to the house, and then, start taking as many people as you can, 'kay?" I asked.

He nodded, poofing out of here, and then appeared again about five seconds later. Then a bunch of the kids touched his outstretched arm, and he told them not to let go, and they all disappeared. It would take about two more and then we'd be free.

I was in the last batch, and again there was that weird feeling. When we landed, I smiled at our house.

I was surprised it was still there, but not so surprised when I noticed an enormous amount of Gov people were surrounding it.


End file.
